Way up a holler between a couple of prominent knobs, below Panther (pronounced "Painter") Knob, we're building a log cabin. Go to the archives and start at the bottom for a chronological story. Comments are welcome! This diary of a project may digress and venture into literature, life, and my reflections on any particular day.

The cabin sits on a spur ridge, down a foot trail from our cleared picnic plateau with a 100-degree wintertime view of the surrounding flanks of Savannah Ridge, the overhead heights of Wolf, Beck, and Panther Knobs, and the distant Plott Balsams. Just a hundred or so feet higher up the headwall ridge behind us, as you climb onto the upper reaches of our cold holler, you can see Clingman's Dome and Newfound Gap, in the Smokies. I built four intersecting foot trails -- one down the ridge to and below the cabin, two flanking it on the contour of the ridge, and one diagonal shortcut.

The deepest darkest trail, the one that comes up a deeply-wooded, protected hollow in the holler, is chock full of Trillium. A type of Lilly, it grows about a foot high. Its three wide leaves protect a pretty, single flower. Most of ours are white and stand up straight in the middle. But a good many are purple and delicately hang, protected, beneath the leaves on the underside. Sloan hears these are called "Wake Robins." There's a Wake Robin Road on the other side of our side-ridge. Obviously, our North-facing slopes and those nearby make a good home for these particular native wildflowers.

This evening, we all took a walk and examined more than a few Flame Azaleas and Wake Robin Trillium while enjoying a 45 degree temperature in late May (notice the jackets).